Harry Patch: Last British WW1 veteran dies at 111

Harry Patch, the last British survivor of World War I, has died at age 111.

The Fletcher House care home in Wells, southwest England, said Patch died early Saturday (July 25, 2009).
“He just quietly slipped away at 9 a.m. this morning,” said care home manager Andrew Larpent. “It was how he would have wanted it, without having to be moved to hospitals but here, peacefully with his friends and carers.”

Mr Patch, born on June 17 1898, known as the “Last Tommy”, is the last living soldier to have fought in the mud-soaked battle of Passchendaele in 1917 in which more than 70,000 British troops died.

Harry Patch, 109, at Passchendaele

Henry John “Harry” Patch became the last British survivor of WW1 after Henry Allingham died just one week ago, July 18, 2009. He was, at the age of 111, the verified third-oldest man in the world, the oldest man in Europe and one of the 70 oldest men ever.